A Brighton man who groomed two girls has been jailed for child sex abuse and making indecent pictures of children.
Lloyd Anthony Collins, 30, of Montpelier Road, Brighton, was given a 15-year sentence – nine years in prison and six years on extended licence in the community under supervision.
Judge Jeremy Donne told Lloyd Collins that he would be a registered sex offender for life after jailing him Chichester Crown Court this morning (Monday 18 July).
He groomed a girl of 14 and another of 15 – and had sex with them when they were 15, making an indecent film of one of them, the court was told.
At an earlier hearing, Collins, who is unemployed, admitted several counts of having sex with an underage girl in addition to the indecent filming.
He also pleaded guilty to three other counts of making dozens of indecent images of children as well as a charge of physically assaulting one of the 15-year-old girls.
Jennifer Gray, prosecuting, said that he threw her across his bedroom, sending her crashing into a wardrobe.
Collins also admitted having cannabis with intent to supply in June 2019 at his Montpelier Road flat. He said that he sold cannabis to friends to fund his own drug use.
And he admitted assaulting PC Raffaele Cioffi in September 2020 while a charge of racially abusing PC Tatenda Ngundu in June 2019 was ordered to lie on the file.
Miss Gray said that Collins displayed controlling and coercive behaviour, having plied both girls with drink and drugs as he groomed them.
As the judge and the barristers tried to establish how old Collins was when he targeted the girls, the judge complained that Sussex Police had redacted the defendant’s date of birth.
Miss Gray said: “I’ve complained about it a number of times. It’s not helpful to anyone.”
She added that Collins had even bombarded one of his victims with calls from prison – trying to persuade her to stop co-operating with the police – despite her request for his calls to be blocked.
She said that the request had been “lost” by the prison. And when the block was eventually put in place, he got round it by using another inmate’s details to keep calling her.
The girl ended up changing her phone number and, in a victim statement read by Miss Gray, she told the court: “I met him at 14. I looked up to him and he would call himself God.
“I feel that he took everything positive from me … He smashed three phones and an iPad. He often told me that I wasn’t clean or a good person.
“Lloyd has left me with feelings of fear and anxiety. He put so much pressure on me … He normalised his abuse.”
She said that he played mind games, including calling her just before her maths GCSE and upsetting her. She failed the exam.
She added: “It was like he set out to destroy everything good in my life.”
The girl’s mother said that Collins’s “relationship” with her daughter had caused a rift between the teenager and her family, adding: “It was heart-wrenching … He abused my daughter.”
The other teenage victim said in a statement: “It makes me sick to know you have an attraction for underage girls which you act upon.”
Janet Weeks, defending, said that he was “quite an immature man”, adding: “He fully acknowledges his offending and is deeply remorseful. He admits that what he did was wholly wrong. It was a wholly inappropriate relationship. It was inexcusable.”
She said that he carried out the offences at a time when he was “struggling with accessing mental health services … and his GP services for his medication”.
Judge Donne imposed indefinite restraining orders, to prevent him from contacting the two girls.
The judge also imposed a sexual harm prevention order to restrict his access to children, phones and computers.
The prosecution was authorised by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) after an investigation, Operation Oakgrove, by officers from the Brighton and Hove Safeguarding Investigations Unit.
Detective Constable Elaine Welsh said: “I have been working on this case for four years during which time Collins has showed no remorse or responsibility for the offences which he has committed.
“He sought out teenage girls at the most vulnerable time of their lives while they were estranged from their families and trying to make their way in life.
“He lied his way into their lives, supplying them with alcohol and drugs.
“He has endeavoured to cause the maximum amount of trauma and distress.
“But despite this, these young women have supported this investigation and shown the utmost dignity and resolve. They have moved on with their lives and will continue to move on and recover.”
The judge ordered Collins to forfeit criminal property worth £615 after he was caught in possession with that amount of cash.
The judge ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the drugs and paraphernalia as well as his phones – and Collins was told to pay a victim surcharge of £181.
